30th Mar 2006 15:44
30 March 2006Notification of Share Interest - Sections 198-203 of the Companies Act 19851. We have received a notice dated 30 March 2006 from an official of TheGoldman Sachs Group Inc., the extract of which is as follows:-"We hereby notify you that as at close of business on 10 March 2006, TheGoldman Sachs Group Inc ("GS Inc") of 85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004, USA,was interested, by attribution only, in a total of 10,635,737 shares.Of these 10,635,737 shares: * The interest in 6,478,878 shares arose from the interest held by Goldman Sachs & Co., a wholly-owned direct subsidiary of GS Inc., acting as custodian for its customers. These shares are, or will be, registered in the name of Goldman Sachs Securities (Nominees) Limited. * The interest in 4,156,858 shares arose from a beneficial interest held by Goldman Sachs International, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of GS Inc., these shares are, or will be, registered at CREST in account CREPTEMP. * The interest in 1 share arose from the interest held by a subsidiary of GS Inc., acting as discretionary manager. We believe this share is, or will be, registered in the name of GSSN". They have decreased their shareholding from 10,888,833 shares in Countrywideplc reported on 14 March 2006 to 10,635,737 shares. This equates to 6.03% ofthe total issued share capital of 176,411,405 shares.Director/Company SecretaryCountrywide plcENDCOUNTRYWIDE PLCRelated Shares:
CWD.L